Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel on Friday gave feedback on what the organisation describes as the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) “reckless actions and policies”, and which it believes were the catalysts for US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of aid to South Africa.

AfriForum has been called out by government and other organisations for creating misinformation, particularly around the recently assented Expropriation Act, that resulted in claims from Trump that South Africa is confiscating land, and "treating certain classes of people very badly".

Trump’s claims have since been widely refuted by government leaders and civil society organisations, with President Cyril Ramaphosa calling on Trump to better understand South African policies.

AfriForum has been on a campaign, with delegations to the US, to raise “awareness” on land expropriation without compensation and farm murders.

The lobby group believes the nil compensation clause in the Expropriation Act needs to be amended.

“…it is so that expropriation is common in the world, but the only places that have compensation of nil is Zimbabwe and Venezuela,” Kriel said during a media briefing in Pretoria.

While Trump made claims of land confiscations in South Africa, Kriel clarified that at the moment there were no large scale confiscations of land in the country, but rather claimed that there were large scale land grabs underway.

He said the “real problem” was that the Expropriation Act allowed for the “disrespect” of property rights, while pointing to South Africa’s foreign policy, which he said played into Trump’s statement.

“It is astonishing that nobody asked what is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s role, what was the African National Congress’s role in creating this anger from the US President, and simply it was just said ‘no it's them, its AfriForum’.

“What we have seen in the last week is an orchestrated attempt to just put the blame on someone else. Ramaphosa and leaders of the ANC are to be blamed for the crisis,” he said.

He said it was Ramaphosa who had signed the Act, not AfriForum, pointing out that the organisation tried to prevent the Bill from becoming law.

Kriel further claimed that the ANC government was reaching out to Hamas and building relationships with countries such as Iran, which it said could lead to an intensification of US action against South Africa.

He said this created the impression that Ramaphosa and the ANC government had a strong anti-western attitude and were choosing sides against the US.

AfriForum also wants South Africa to rethink its international relations policy and commit to keep out of international conflicts.

The organisation also urged the US not to punish ordinary people in the country.

“…normal working class, unemployed people are not responsible. If one is going to be blamed, blame the President and blame the ANC,” Kriel said.

He stated that AfriForum tried, through conversations with Ramaphosa and the ANC, to find solutions for the “crisis” that the Expropriation Act and Basic Education Laws Amendment Act created.

He alleged that Ramaphosa and the Government of National Unity were acting “very badly” with regards to the cultural existence of the Afrikaans community, stating that there were 141 racially-discriminating laws in the country.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the ANC said it would not tolerate "racist distortions" aimed at undermining national sovereignty and the country's transformation agenda. It called for a progressive rejections, locally and globally, of AfriForum’s "divisive agenda" and called for support for South Africa's pursuit of justice, equity, and  land reform.

"It is unacceptable that AfriForum continues to seek external intervention against a sovereign country’s domestic policies—policies that are necessary to address the legacy of land dispossession caused by colonialism and apartheid," the party said.